Harlem Townhouse Brimming With Art

The living room in the upper duplex of a townhouse in Harlem is filled with pieces from the owner's art collection.
Natalie Keyssar for The Wall Street Journal

By

Jackie Bischof

Nov. 14, 2012 10:15 p.m. ET

For Doug Werner, moving from his three-family home in Harlem will be a pain. In addition to having to pack the usual possessions that make up a home, he also has to deal with his collection of more than 100 portraits, statues and numerous stuffed animals.

At Home With an Art Collection

A rear study area in the townhouse's upper duplex. Doug Werner and Corey Scott have collected more than 100 portraits, statues and numerous stuffed animals. Natalie Keyssar for The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Werner, a corporate medical director and an avid art collector, purchased the townhouse, which has one apartment and two duplexes, in 2009 for $1.05 million. Together with his partner Corey Scott, an interior designer, he moved into the upper duplex and decorated it with his art, using three rooms to feature works in his French, Californian and African collections.

The townhouse is 3,600 square feet, not including a finished basement currently used as a recreation area by the lower duplex, which also has access to the garden measuring about 800 square feet.

"Most of what I've purchased is through travel, and some of it through private individuals, some through dealers," says Mr. Werner, 47 years old, who lived in a 4,000-square-foot home in Arizona before the Harlem duplex. "Every few years, I think my taste changes a little bit," he says. "There's so much here I can't display."

Since moving into the building, Messrs. Werner and Scott have increased their collection of African art, in particular with the addition of sculptures from the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe. The entrance of their duplex features a 600-pound statue of a woman pouring beer, and a sculpture of a water buffalo atop an antique Chinese cabinet occupies the townhouse's vestibule.

ENLARGE

The red-brick building on west 132nd Street in Harlem has three units and is listed for $1.595 million.
Natalie Keyssar for The Wall Street Journal

ENLARGE

The living room in the garden-level duplex.
Natalie Keyssar for The Wall Street Journal

The couple is in the process of relocating to San Francisco, where Mr. Werner has been selected as the director of clinical research at a biotechnology company. The townhouse is on the market for $1.595 million—not including the art.

"I tried to set up the building…so that everyone would feel it was their home," says Mr. Werner, "not that they were walking into an entrance with a mailbox." Although he never imagined himself a landlord, Mr. Werner felt the purchase of the building was a "terrific bargain at the time, even in the recession," and he came around to the idea of having tenants instead of converting the home into a single-family space.

Mr. Scott, 26, admits that he is a large reason the couple has amassed a taxidermy collection, which includes the mounted heads of six African bucks. They also have several smaller heads and three rugs, including one of a mountain lion.

"When we first saw the home, it was stark and bare," says Mr. Scott. "But when we started putting furniture in, it felt like a completely different apartment. I could be completely modern, but that house to me didn't want that," he says, describing the pieces as "fitting."

In addition to their own collection, the couple searched antique stores for fittings and moldings they felt were true to the time period of when the home was built in 1910, according to John McGuinness of Halstead Property.

With the building's two terraces and a garden, each living unit has its own private outdoor space. Each is also fitted with granite countertops, a washer and dryer, hardwood floors and central air conditioning.

A property developer did a gut renovation of the building in 2005, according to Mr. Werner.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.